Items Purchased

Greetings! It has been a while since I wrote.  Very sorry about being delinquent.  Blogging does need a discipline.  Well it is the last day of the year, Dec 31st 2008. As the year comes to an end, do I ponder about the past and reflect.  I guess some but now to reality of looking forward.

As for the shopping list, it is quite done.  So where did we get out stuff.  We were lucky enough to end up being able to purchase the items from overseas due to a correct timing.  My apologies for those who have to get it locally.  We did go do price comparison at various shops, like ToysRUS, Toycity, Parkson Grand, Jaya Jusco, Mothercare, Sunshine, Giant, Tesco, Bebe.  We visited some of the smaller shops that sell baby stuff in Penang and Bukit Mertajam.  What we found was that it was costly for the items we were looking for?  The US made items were really expensive and so were the imported items from European countries.  Even the local made items, though cheaper would set us back a few thousand ringgits in total.  We were blessed with 2 things,  I was able to travel the US in October and Ai Ling had an ex-colleague who was relocating from the US to Malaysia who was kind enough to offer us to bring some baby items back.  We ended up purchasing the following items:

• Baby stroller and car seat, we settled for the COMBI brand.
• Fisher Price Rainforest baby play gym, play mobile, snack tray and booster seat.
• Fisher Price Nature’s Touch Papasan Cradle Swing.
• Safety 1st space saver bath tub.
• Medela Single Deluxe Electric Breast Pump and milk storage bags
• Dr Brown baby feeding bottle and teats
• Graco Ultraclear II Baby Monitor
• Baby bibs and baby clothing.

Another thing is to start shopping around for baby nappies, you can start checking the pricing and wait for the sales to buy and stock up on the nappies.

Well, that is all for now and Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Shopping List (con’t)

The shopping list is about almost done. The remaining item would be what to bring to the hospital on the special day.

Items to bring to hospital:

1. Clothing for the mom and undergarments.  At least 2 to 3 sets.
2. Maternity pads
3. Baby clothing for the newborn
4. Disposable underwear
5. Instant milk drink, horlicks or milo 3-in-1
6. Biscuits
7. Toiletries – tooth brush, toothpaste, towel, soap, cleanser, moisturizer, powder, comb
8. Disposable diapers for the newborn
9. Handphone and charger
10. Book to read for prolonged labor
11. Tissue paper
12. Purse and money.

Well that is all the list we made.  Hope it helps.

Shopping List (con’t)

Good Morning! It is 6:30 am on the weekend of Dec 20 2008.  Why am I up so early, can’t seem to sleep past 6:30 am everyday if I go to sleep at 11 pm.  Anyways not to bore you further.  The continuation of the shopping list:

Baby Clothing: (depending on whether a boy or girl but I will make a generic list)

1. Baby Hat to keep the head warm (I know we live in a hot climate but we do go into air condition places)
2. Mitten and booties.  Mitten are good for preventing the baby for accidentally scratching themselves.
3. Baby tops.
4. Baby singlets.
5. Baby pants, long and short.
6. Baby skirts for girls.
7. Leggings to keep legs warm
8. Pajamas for sleeping
9. Baby coveralls when going out
10. Baby jacket
11. Bips (Try to look for the ones with the food catcher so that you don’t have to pick up food off the floor.)
12. Baby nappy.  (Get the disposable one or the cloth one if you are into washing)

Note: If the clothing have buttons, do look for the ones where the embedded button base so that it does not scratch the baby too much as their skin is sensitive.

Baby feeding:

1. Milk bottles (2 small bottles, one for milk and the other for water).  If you get the plastic ones, try to get BPA free ones.
2. Baby teats, get the one that is like the natural breast tit.
3. Pacifier 
4. Milk formula container (Get the 3 to 4 compartment ones for each feeding)
5. Bottle brush for cleaning, get 2 size, one big and one small
6. Bottle sterilizer (Just use a pot and boil the water or you can get the one that is electric or microwavable)
7. Baby warmer (Not necessary as we don’t live in a cold climate)
8. Privacy cover for public breast feeding when you are outside.  (There are special made ones but a large size cloth will do).
9. Breast pump.  
10. Breast milk container to keep the breast milk in the fridge or freezer.

For Mum:

1. Maternity clothing – look at Jusco or Tesco
2. Maternity bra and nursing bra (Jusco or Tesco)
3. Disposable panties after delivery
4. Sarong after delivery
5. Sanitary napkins after delivery

Shopping List (con’t)

Today’s Shopping List covers baby bedding and bathing stuff.
Bedding:

1. Baby mattress – depends on the size of the baby cot or bed you are using.  Type of mattress is mostly the rubber (cooling) type.  I would recommend the memory foam as I read that it reduces flat head on the back of the head.  I found only 1 place that can make memory foam and it is located in KL. Not sure how much it cost.  Will update with address later on.
2. Pillow and bolster.  Need extra ones for those who use the normal bed to prevent the baby from rolling off the bed.
3. Baby blanket.  Flannel blankets.
4. Mattress protector to protect against baby wetting.  Can use a rubber mat.

Bathing:

1. Bath tub.  Ensure the tub has an anti-slip mat in it to prevent the baby from slidding down.
2. Baby shower gel.
3. Baby powder
4. Baby lotion
5. Baby oil
6. Baby rash cream.
7. Baby wipes
8. Face towel
9. Bath towel.  Get the hooded one as to prevent the heat loss from the head during bathing.  Preferable an oversized towed also.
10. Hand towel
11. Cotton pads to clean the face
12. Cotton buds to clear the ear

That is about it for now.  Have a great day.

Shopping List

This is the start of our shopping list.  It grew to be quite long after we started collecting information from brochures, friends and the internet.  Sometimes we end up with over-information, in this days of the internet, sadly that happens.  So, we will start the shopping list in some categorized format.  I start of with the easiest category.

Equipment for the baby (Newborn)

1. Stroller.  We decided to get the travel system type which incorporated stroller and baby car seat capsule.
2. Baby Car Seat.  We decided to get the capsule type that fits in the car base for easy removal.
3. Bag for baby stuff, preferable a bag with several compartments.  We just thought of using a normal backpack.
4. Baby changing mat (portable – to be used outside of home environment)
5. Baby thermometer, preferable the digital type, either the normal one or the one for the ear.
6. Nasal aspirator, battery operated.  I have not used this but thought it would be better than the manual one.
7. Baby mobile.
8. Baby cot, we decided not to get the baby cot but to use a close and secure sleeper for newborn and then pillows as the baby grows bigger.
9. Baby bath tub.
10. Baby feeding bottle.  Try to get the BPA free one if possible.  In Malaysia, not many shops list BPA free items.  So best to check out the internet for BPA free brands and shop for the brands.
11. Electric breast pump.  We were told that the manual one takes longer and needs energy to manage the pump.
12. Baby cradle swing, we decided for this after being informed of its usefulness by parents that used them.
13. Baby sling carrier.
14. Baby monitor, you can get the digital audio or video one.  We just got the audio one.  
15. Memory foam mattress to prevent flat head syndrome.
16. Baby Play Gym.

Eqiupment for baby (18 months onwards)

1. Car Booster Seat (as the baby gets bigger, mostly required in the from 18 months onwards depending on size of baby)
2. Baby Booster Seat (used for feeding, 18 months onwards).  We got the one that fits on a chair.

Note: Do check back occasionally as we will update the list as we go on.

Why are we blogging?

So, why are we blogging? Well, we thought of sharing our findings about pregnancy in Malaysia, how it is managed and handled from our perspective and to share information with others who would find it useful. The other thing is to document the birth of our child and to share the events leading up to the birth so the child would know. In this days of technological advancement, things seems easier. We hope the information we share here would be useful and helpful to others.

So after we found out about the good news, well, Ai Ling started to make a list of things to get. The quick items we could identify were: stroller, car seat, feeding bottle, play gym, baby mobile, booster seat, electric breast pump. We made a list and also obtained a list from some friends who were also expecting. So we will post the list later on.

After we made the list, we started to find out the places to go and get these items. The only malls we know of in Penang were the Queensbay Mall and Gurney Plaza Mall. We checked out shops like Mothercare, Parkson Grand, ToysRUs, Toy City in Gurney Plaza and Jusco, ToysRUs in Queensbay Mall. We also checked out other shops like Sunshine Square in Bayan Baru township, Tesco. We went to the AEON Seberang Prai to see the newly open Jusco Store there, it is located at Bandar Perda on the mainland. It was fun shopping around but we finally came to realize the next reality that dawned, the cost of the items. From the information we gathered and also about the features of the items, the cost was growing into the thousands of ringgits. So we just gathered the list and the cost but did not buy anything yet.